I'm your host, Jester. I've been an EVE Online player for about six years. One of my four mains is Ripard Teg, pictured at left. Sadly, I've succumbed to "bittervet" disease, but I'm wandering the New Eden landscape (and from time to time, the MMO landscape) in search of a cure.You can follow along, if you want...

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Fit of the Week: Minigame Buzzard and Heron

I promised one more weird FOTW before going head on into battleships for a couple of months, and here it is:

As far as I can see, this ship and fit are about optimal for the job of wandering the landscape of New Eden looking for and completing the new hacking mini-game sites, whether they're relic sites or data sites. In either situation, with good skills, this ship has a virus coherence of 120 and a virus strength of 40. As long as you're careful, that will flatten pretty much any mini-game site you come across. Go ahead and use the T1 mini-game modules until you can use T2, but keep in mind that you'll be sacrificing a good bit of coherence and strength without both the T2 modules and the skills to back them up.

If you like, fit a Sisters Expanded Probe Launcher instead of the Core Probe Launcher. However, if you do so you're going to need both Covert Ops V skill and you're going to have to off-line the modules that you're not using. Of the Data Analyzer, Relic Analyzers, and Salvager, you'll only be able to on-line one at a time. Honestly, the Core Probe Launcher is probably good enough for what you're going to be doing. The Salvager is mostly there in case you run into a juicy wreck in your travels.

EDIT (27/Jun/2013): Several players made one additional (quite good!) suggestion: trade the Scan Rangefinding Array for a cargo scanner. This will allow you to get a sneak peek of what is going to be in the "lootsplosion" and change your strategy as to which cans you're going to go after accordingly. This page has very useful information on what types of loot go with what types of mini-cans!

And you'll be traveling a lot from system to system, using the probe launcher to lock down sites. A covert ops with two Gravitational Capacitor rigs and a pilot with typical skills has a scan strength of about 130. This one has to make do with about 115 with equal skills. But that will be good enough to scan down virtually any relic or data site that you come across. You can sacrifice the mini-game rigs for "grav caps" if you like but keep in mind that you'll be sacrificing +10 virus coherence by doing so. If you're a good at scanning, keep the coherence. If you're really good at the mini-game, go for the grav caps.

Your align time is six seconds which is a touch risky for null-sec but if you run into a serious camp, just crash back to gate and take your wanderings elsewhere. You can cut it to five seconds by trading the warp core stab for a Nanofiber Internal Structure, but the "stab" provides a nice bit of insurance. If you're pointed while you're distracted by the mini-game (by a bomber or other frigate, say), you'll have the option to warp off as long as you're not scrammed.

Not much else to say about this one, so let's cover its T1 equivalent:

Small Emission Scope Sharpener I
Small Memetic Algorithm Bank I
[empty rig slot]

Hornet EC-300 x3
Hornet EC-300 x3
Warrior II x1

The Heron has three advantages over the Buzzard:

it aligns quicker thanks to the nano;

it's significantly cheaper; and,

in extremis, it carries some drones.

The Heron also has three disadvantages:

it can't warp cloaked;

its scan strength is lower (about 105 with good skills, versus 115); and,

its virus strength is lower at 35, versus 40 (though coherence is the same).

That last is a somewhat significant draw-back, particularly against some tough null-sec sites. The Heron also has a more minor fourth advantage: it carries about double the cargo of the Buzzard, so if you come upon the site of a major battle, you'll be able to carry away more loot. The Buzzard also has a very minor fourth advantage: it's slightly tankier thanks to higher HP values, which might save you if you're tackled by a frig or a bomber while aligning to try and warp off.

In either case, you can boost virus coherence another five points with either the Hacking implant, HC-905, or the Archaeology implant, the AC-905. You can't have both, sorry. The EY-1005 implant, previously useful to reduce module cycle times, is no longer particularly useful to the hacking mini-game.

Happy hacking!

All Fits of the Week are intended as general guidelines only. You
may not have the skills needed for this exact fit. If you do not, feel
free to adjust the fit to suit to meet your skills, including using meta
3 guns and "best named" defenses and e-war. Ships can also be adjusted
to use faction or dead-space modules depending on the budget of the
pilot flying it. Each FOTW is intended as a general guide to introduce
you to concepts that will help you fit and to fly that particular type
of ship more aggressively and well.

8 comments:

At least 1 warp core stab is mandatory imo. I would drop some of the scanning midslots in favor of more tank in case you come across a smartbombing battleship that is sneaky, my fit (without the stab because I ONLY run sites in empty null systems) gets just a touch under 5k in-game ehp, but it takes a touch of faction to pull that off.

I have one tiny problem with your fits. I started off exactly the same for my buzzard, until I realised I need a cargo scanner. You need this to understand and decide which mini-containers to salvage. SO you don't waste time on the empty mini-cans. I sacrificed the MWD.

Both fits would benefit from dropping a mid-slot item and putting in a cargo scanner. Yes, a cargo scanner! Scan every can in a site before you try to crack any of them. Then you know what is in them. If a data site has decryptors, then you want to grab "parts" containers. But if it has a blueprint -- perhaps a faction tower? -- you want to grab "data" containers. And there are some cans, usually about one per site, that are either empty (yes it can happen) or else which contain only stuff of such low value they are not worth the time to crack.

An interesting note; if you have decent scanning skills, ditch one of the midslot modifiers for a cargo scanner. Believe it or not, they do in fact return the results of what's inside the cans. Get the good lewt first in case you need to get away.

Hey Jester one module that you left out is a Cargo Scanner: Those hackable structures can be cargo scanned before you hack them, and you'll see all of the possible loot in them. Great time saver since you don't have to play the mini game for worthless tech I junk. Also some of the Relic and Data sites are huge, so a Warp Core Stabilizer is gonna slow you down since your locking range will be reduced...

You NEED a cargo scanner if you are going to be doing sites correctly. If you see blueprints you know to grab the data containers, salvage components mean material, etc.Otherwise you're just picking up random common loot (carbon, hydrogen batteries, etc.)

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